Shadow of the Tomb Raider Review: Lara Croft’s Finest Adventure

The rebooted Tomb Raider collection’ third entry, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, continues the franchise’s run of success, marrying pulse-pounding motion and difficult puzzles with a staggering, double-take worthy audio-visual presentation. The basis laid by Crystal Dynamics within the first two titles is additional refined and constructed upon by Eidos Montreal, who aided within the growth of the earlier video games however has now taken the reins as lead developer, with Crystal Dynamics, which is at present engaged on a brand new Avengers sport, lending assist. The swap in management couldn’t have been extra seamless–Shadow maintains the spirit of its predecessors whereas introducing sufficient new components to maintain returning gamers on their toes, and by virtually each measure, that is essentially the most polished — and maybe greatest — Tomb Raider sport to this point.

Shadow completes a three-game character arc for Lara Croft, who’s once more voiced by the extraordinary Camilla Luddington. The first sport launched us to a younger Lara, a frightened, neophyte survivalist left shriveled and traumatized when pressured to take her first human life. Rise of the Tomb Raidernoticed her address PTSD and uncover the reality behind the demise of her father, and Shadow completes her transformation as we watch her grasp her abilities and confront her internal demons, grappling with an intoxicating notion of “future” that haunts her goals and pushes her ever nearer to the fringes of sanity.

While narrative and character growth appear much less central to the expertise than, say, the Unchartedcollection (whose DNA is inextricably linked with Tomb Raider’s), storytelling nonetheless stays a driving drive in Shadow, and watching Lara come into her personal and overcome the ghosts of her previous is compelling from starting to finish. Her relationship with right-hand man Jonah (Earl Baylon) is dealt with notably properly, with the kind-hearted Kiwi appearing as a voice of motive and compassion, anchoring Lara when her hubris and pessimism threaten to eat her.

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The sport is about within the teeming jungles of Latin America, with Lara combating each the surroundings and cultist paramilitary group Trinity, who return from the earlier title to once more stand in our heroine’s method. Lara’s now a much more assured (virtually cocky) and zealous adventurer, and her single-mindedness leads her to inadvertently unleash a collection of apocalyptic disasters on 1000’s of harmless individuals. There are undercurrents of socio-political commentary all through the principle story, which focuses on subverting the white savior trope, capturing in horrific element the inherent terror of catholicism, and exploring the fickle nature of nationalism.

As in earlier video games, the map is hub-based, divided right into a handful of open environments suffering from smaller, targeted problem areas. But Shadowboasts the collection’ most expansive hubs but, with rolling hills and bustling jungled communities populated by roaming animals and chatty villagers, who most of the time reveal hidden gadgets on the map or open alternatives for aspect missions. Exploration is particularly engrossing right here, as there’s seemingly one thing new to uncover inside each nook and cranny of the sport world, from forgotten treasures to instinct-amplifying, consumable vegetation.

Traversal has all the time been a key part in Tomb Raider video games, and it’s extra fluid than ever this time round due to new mechanics like improved swimming controls (and expanded underwater areas to utilize them) and the power to rappel down cliff partitions. While climbing and scampering isn’t as strong because the programs you’ll discover in Assassin’s Creed or Insomniac’s Spider-Man, exploring the varied environments nonetheless feels extremely streamlined and environment friendly, which lets you give attention to sussing out puzzles with out the added, pointless stress of combating with floaty controls.

Combat is extra of a combined bag. Controls are snappy and responsive when partaking enemies, however sure encounters can develop into frustratingly frantic and chaotic. The digital camera’s proximity to Lara is so tight that battling a couple of enemy most of the time ends in getting whallopped by grunts lunging at you from simply off-screen, whose pre-attack telegraphing animations occur utterly out of view, providing you with little to no time to dodge successfully. To make issues worse, projectile-launching enemies have infuriatingly correct purpose, which, when mixed with the digital camera situation, could make for a really un-fun expertise.

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Stealth gameplay, then again, is way richer and properly balanced this time round. Lara’s been given the invaluable potential to re-enter stealth mode after alerting enemies by breaking their line of sight. She may also cowl herself in mud and mix into mossy rock partitions, which not solely seems cool (she seems genuinely camouflaged when muddied) however opens up myriad alternatives to off wandering baddies rapidly and discreetly. Verticality is a key aspect as properly; preying on trinity troopers from the treetops and stringing them up with a grapple line a dozen toes off the forest ground is endlessly pleasant.

Skills unlocked by way of the sport’s ability tree open up Lara’s repertoire in ingenious methods. Highlights embrace the power to plant proximity grenades on fallen enemies, stealth kill a number of enemies without delay, and craft worry arrows that trigger enemies to activate one another. Eidos Montreal does a superb job of making a way that Lara is more proficient than ever earlier than, which speaks to her development as a warrior-survivalist but additionally reinforces the narrative that she’s matured as a girl.

Challenge tombs are extra quite a few than in earlier titles, with every one presenting a rigorously curated set of obstacles, whether or not or not it’s a physics-based puzzle, an infernal impediment course, or a gauntlet of swarming enemies. The platforming puzzles, specifically, are tremendously properly designed, and on many events, a puzzle’s resolution might be hidden in plain sight. The “a-ha!” second of lastly unlocking the trick to a puzzle being a few of the sport’s highest highs.

Gameplay is generally rock-solid and pleasant throughout, however Shadow’s true wow-factor lies in its graphical prowess and immersive sound design. The sport’s lighting is staggeringly good, particularly when traversing the leafy hub environments in broad daylight. The glow of the blistering South American daylight is incredible, and out of doors scenes look really spectacular on 4K shows. Each locale is richly detailed, with geometrically complicated surroundings that loses little or no constancy even upon shut examination. Jungle vegetation is a spotlight, too. Plants, vines, and bushes organized realistically and densely, to the purpose the place at instances it feels just like the foliage is crowding in on you, threatening to swallow you complete.

Of course, one of many defining traits of the present incarnation of Tomb Raider is the give attention to cinematic set items that ship Lara hurtling towards sure doom, and these moments are extra spectacular and thrilling than ever. An early sequence sees Lara swept away in a flood by Mexican metropolis streets, scrambling to maintain her head above water as harmless individuals perish left and proper. It’s a graphical tour-de-force, however it’s the emotional aspect of Lara’s lack of ability to save lots of the lives of the harmless bystanders (who fall sufferer to a flood that she brought on) that basically makes the expertise really feel particular.

Perhaps essentially the most supremely spectacular side of the visible presentation is Lara’s character mannequin, which was already terrific in earlier titles however sees a noticeable bump intimately and expressiveness right here. Her animations are clean as silk and reply to participant management inputs with out showing jerky or unnatural. Little particulars, like the way in which she follows factors of curiosity along with her gaze, look startlingly actual. The tertiary animations of her instruments and weapons jingling as she runs, or the lifelike scrapes and bruises you see on her elbows as she rigorously shimmies out and in of tight openings in rock faces, actually assist to floor Lara within the sport world and make it really feel like she’s really interacting with and altering her environment.

By the identical token, essentially the most noticeable hitch within the visible presentation is Jonah’s character mannequin. While Lara is exquisitely designed, organic-looking and is simple to ascertain as an actual individual, Jonah’s mannequin has a very symmetrical, create-a-character look to it that merely doesn’t look as expressive and lifelike as Lara’s. NPC’s look much more manufactured, which is totally forgivable given the dimensions of the presentation, and the principle villain’s mannequin truly seems virtually nearly as good as Lara’s. But the iffy high quality of Jonah’s is essentially the most noticeable as a result of he’s such a pervasive presence within the story and shares extra scenes with Lara than some other character.

Thankfully, Earl Baylon’s efficiency helps breathe life into Jonah, and Camilla Luddington’s tackle Croft is as sharp as ever. There’s fairly a robust emotional core to this remaining leg of Lara’s coming-of-age story, and the British-American actress nails each second of anger and heartbreak, with out fail. She’s actually doing a few of the greatest voice work in video video games at the moment.

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Eidos Montreal’s audio designers do a wonderful job of supporting her efficiency and the dazzling visuals with tasteful sound that envelops however doesn’t ever really feel invasive or distracting. Caves are echoey, prowling animals may be positioned spatially with out visible cues, and the sound design is absolutely the key to creating the in any other case unremarkable underwater sequences genuinely thrilling.

Sound performs a serious function within the developer’s method to the semi-open world presentation as properly. The sprawling mountainside village of Paititi (the sport’s largest hub space) involves life due to ambient pure sounds and smatterings of locals’ chatter. Wandering across the village can develop into a little bit of a chore when finishing up a few of the sport’s extra uninspired, thinly-veiled fetch quests, however generally the sport seems and sounds so good that taking a easy stroll may be partaking sufficient.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a superb sport, and it’s heartening to see Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics’ trilogy capped off so brilliantly. There’s no sport mechanic or idea launched right here that’s revolutionary or transformative for the collection, however the reality is that the present Tomb Raider method nonetheless holds up. If you take a look at the three video games as a cohesive, bigger expertise, the truth that the builders had been in a position to keep such a excessive degree of high quality all through the rebooted franchise’s lifetime is a powerful feat certainly.

Bernard Boo is a contract contributor. Read extra of his work right here.